Pork And Lentils

This is a good recipe when you've got some leftover roast meat. This time I had plenty of pork letfover so I put it with a few of my favourite things: Puy lentils, mustard and mashed potato.

Roast Pork With Lentils (Serves 2)

A bowlful of leftover roast pork leg (apologies for the lack of accuracy!)
200g puy lentils
1 carrot, cut in three
1 celery stick, cut in three
Half an onion
1 bay leaf
parsley stalks
1 tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp parsley leaves, finely chopped


1. Cut the roast pork into cubes. Put the lentils in a pan with the carrot, celery, onion, bay leaf and some parsley stalks, bring the the boil and cook for 20 minutes. Drain, making sure you reserve some of the cooking liquor. Remove the carrot, bay leaf, onion and celery.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the garlic and saute for a few minutes. Then add the pork to heat through. Now add the lentils to the pan with the mustard, creme fraiche, parsley and season with salt and pepper. Add some of the water you cooked the lentils in to slacken to your desired consistency.
3. Serve with mashed potato and boiled savoy cabbage flavoured with a teaspoon of caraway seeds.

This is quite heavy, stodgy fare but just what I needed on a cold, rainy night. The savoy cabbage flavoured with caraway seeds wasn't bad either. Puy lentils really are amazing - they keep their shape, have loads of flavour and only take 20 minutes to cook. Puut them together with sausages or leftover meat and you've got a quick, hearty dinner that's almost as good as the previous day's roast.